We're $%#@! the @#$% toilet...again...

Pro: Being jobless gives me time to really clean my house, like I'm supposed to--scrubbing toilets, washing towels, etc.

Pro: Giving the newly cleaned toilet one last flush before taking the towels downstairs to the laundry room was, in retrospect, a good thing.

Pro: The bathroom, and offending toilet, are directly over the unfinished portion of the basement (and right next to the washer and dryer) where a leak cannot go unnoticed if one happens to be standing at the washer loading towels.

Con: There is such a leak.

Con: This being the first time (ever) that I've scrubbed the toilet, flushed the toilet, and immediately run downstairs to wash a load of towels, I've no idea how old the leak is.

Pro: Ben Franklin Plumbers are prompt, courteous, and only charge you for sending one person, even when they send two.

Con: Previous Owner (PO, from here on out, for the way he makes me feel on a regular basis--like here), when faced with a less than steller subfloor and the need to set a toilet, chose to take the easy road, not the right road, and set me up for a leak and major reno job. (Hardly the first time he's done this to me, but still...)

Pro: Another benefit of being jobless is that I have all the time in the world (sort of) to rip up the tile and backerboard and worthless subfloor, thus saving us from paying someone else to do that part of the job.

Con: It's not looking good for replacing part of the tile, so the whole floor may need to come out.

Pro: I've been wanting to replace the vanity and sink, which gives me a noseful of sewer gas every morning (Thanks to the PO, again), anyway.

Con: Even so, it's money we'd rather spend on something fun, or at least on a home upgrade we were looking forward to, not a bathroom we thought was in decent shape for a while.

Seeing as the pros still outnumber the cons, I'm off to deal with my bathroom, rather than light a match and toss it over my shoulder as I walk away.

Title: Same toilet song as before, since it's the same toilet. Taking more liberties with the wording now....I think the writers would understand.

I see trees of green

Anyone who has seen our house or a picture of it has seen the six builder's special shrubs stretching across the front of the house. Depending on how long it has been since you've seen it, or even which season you saw the house, you might have through the shrubs were a bit out of control. You would be right. The four innermost shrubs were imposing and difficult to keep under control. The two on the ends were far beyond control, and I could only trim them as high as I could reach, so at about eight feet up they exploded into chaos much like an old man's eyebrows above the roofline of our house.

A little over a month ago, I decided I'd had enough and that the shrubs had to go. Seriously; one day it was "yeah, we really need to work on the front yard some day" and the next it was "They have to go. Now." J, as I'm sure you can imagine, quickly saw what his role would be and was not so thrilled. Lucky for me, he understood that my growing unhappiness at work had left me a little emotionally fragile, and that this request (demand?) really wasn't the kind of thing to argue.

We made plans to start the destruction on a Friday after the sun went down and hoped we could gather the mess the following morning in the cool of the day (this was the last weekend in a very hot July, mind you). Instead, we went to a birthday party Friday evening, and J went to work on a Habitat House all day Saturday. He came home exhausted and in search of a cool bed. See the last paragraph for a hint of how well I took the news that my shrubs might not come down. It wasn't particularly pretty, nor was the attempt to get the chain saw working in the dwindling light. Running out of options to please his unstable wife, J grabbed a pair of loppers and went to work, which resulted in half the shrubs coming down before bed time.

Sunday morning dawned early with a quick trip to Lowes, an attempt to get the chain saw going again, another failure, more loppers, more trips to Lowes, more failures, and more loppers. That J could move a muscle in his upper body by the end of the day truly is quite shocking. In the end, we were left with a huge pile of branches piled in the front yard, lots of stumps and sticks protruding across the front of the house, and a happy JE.

On Monday, I started researching how to get rid of mass amounts of yard waste so that we could clear the yard. I also managed to get sick enough that J was willing to pay an arm and a leg to just be done with the darn project. I agreed and called our lawn service to see if they could help. Tuesday morning, they arrived to haul off the shrubs, leaving us with the stumps and a promise to come back and remove them, too.

We spent most of the month of August being "that house" on the block--our stumps, the dead grass (have I mentioned the hot, dry summer?), no storm door (result of a strong wind storm back in July, and quite frankly, another long story), and huge tomato plant (with only one tomato) hanging out on the front porch. It was starting to be a bit embarassing.

Finally, the stumps have been removed, a new front door has been ordered, and I've spent some time at a couple of local nurseries checking out native, low-maintenance species to plant out front. I'm looking forward to sharing the final results in another month or so, but decided that the story is too long not break into two posts, anyhow. Oh, and we're thinking about adding this little guy to welcome the world during the World Equestrian Games at the end of the month. Thoughts?

Title: "What a Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong

Now we're actually finished on the toilet!

So sorry it's taken a week and a half to get to "the rest of the story" as I'm sure you've all been waiting with baited breath!

Long story short (seriously, as long as Saturday took, Sunday went that quickly!)-- We went out with friends Saturday evening with visions on toilets dancing in our heads (well, JE's head) and eager to share the story. Our friend D listened closely, then suggested that his Dremel might be just the ticket to cut through the bolts and remove the tank from the toilet base.

After church on Sunday, we ran by his home to grab the Dremel, read the directions, and got to work.

Sidebar: The little disks that they sell to slice through metal are incredibly strong, but also incredibly fragile. And by incredibly, I mean it's a good thing D had a fresh twenty pack of the things. We went through 7, and not one broke in the actual process of cutting through a bolt. Hit the Dremel with another tool? Shattered. Kick the Dremel over onto the tile floor? Clean break. Tap the Dremel while squeezing between the toilet and bath tub? Yup, again. Seven times. Needless to say, J hit Lowes for another 20-pack on his way to return the Dremel.

A slow and steady hour or so later, and we had lots of little pieces of nuts and bolts and had the tank off the bowl.

Another thirty minutes, and we were actually ready to install the dual flush converter. I'm not certain that we pulled that part of the task off in the promised ten minutes, but it probably wasn't more than twenty to finish the project. Then we spent at least another five flushing the toilet to watch how much water we are saving (yes, I get the irony), and another five putting the bathroom back together.

All told, including Saturday's five hours, the project took us about seven hours. J built a little confidence in his handyman skills, and for maybe the first time in our handy efforts, no one got hurt!

Title: Same Toilet song...still not one you want to read the rest of the lyrics on!

Now we're ... on the toilet

Friday, 6:30 p.m. JE runs to Home Depot to research front doors as a part of an ongoing effort to spruce up the front of the MP (another story that I promise to post about soon). On her way out, she spots a Dual Flush converter, which promises to save hundreds of dollars with just ten minutes of work and no tools!

Having seen a blog post about this handy gadget on Young House Love, JE calls J to see if he's interested in purchasing one to replace the aging flush mechanism in the main bath. J agrees that is sounds like a good purchase and offers to install it while JE works on DAR projects Saturday morning.

Saturday, 9:30 a.m. After spending a couple hours working on DAR, JE wakes up J, who makes a fabulous breakfast and heads into the bathroom with the converter.


Saturday, 10:30 a.m. JE hears J mutter "that's interesting..." Having heard that phrase one too many times not to know that it means the latest project is going to take more time and money than planned, she calls out to J to be sure everything is okay. He insists it is.


Saturday, 10:35 a.m. J calls JE into the bathroom to investigate the interesting flush valve mechanism. It's not okay. JE heads to Google to figure out why her toilet doesn't look like the one on the box. Despite the lack of a brand marking on their toilet, she and J agree that they have a Mansfield toilet, which requires more work (of course).

10:55 a.m. JE heads to Home Depot for a replacement flush valve set. J stays behind to remove the tank from the toilet bowl in preparation.


11:30 a.m. JE arrives home with the new flush valve. J has dug out several sets of pliers and WD 40, but still hasn't gotten the tank off the bowl. JE chips in and tries to help. The bolts holding the tank on have rusted solid and become one with the wing nuts under the tank. More WD 40 follows. More Googling.

12:30 p.m. JE plugs in her glue gun in hopes that the heat will expand the nuts. It doesn't. J grabs a butane lighter to see if that would help. It doesn't. Both are surprised that the open flame doesn't produce a more impressive result on the WD40-soaked nuts and bolts.

12:45 p.m. J heads off in search of a nut-cutter. He goes to Lowes. And Ace Hardware. And Home Depot.


2:30 p.m. J comes home with vise grips, a large screwdriver and a large chisel. The vise grips are tightened down on a wing nut to keep it stationary while the chisel is attached to the drill. While JE uses the lighter to heat the nut and hhols onto the vise grips, J attempts to break the rust seal with the chisel-turned-screwdriver inside the tank.

3:00 p.m. No luck. JE googles new toilets and plumbers. J puts his new tools away.



Time: 5 hours...and counting
Tools: six? seven? I've lost count...
Injuries: None...yet


Title: The Toilet Song, from Blue's Clues. Google it. Actual line: Now we're finished on the toilet. But we're not.

Trapped in the closet, Part 1

First, I know I start more posts by apologizing for the lack of posts, but I'm going to do it again. J and I have both spent this winter fighting off sickness and treading water with regard to everything else. Luckily, Spring is finally arriving (I noticed our dafodils peaking through the ground just last night!), and we're getting back on track!


This weekend, we're participating in our first race of the year, the 3K Shamrock Shuffle. This is a huge race in downtown Lexington, and I'm really looking forward to it! While I've continued to exercise on my own, this is my first race since the Snowman Shuffle in early December. Hopefully this gets us back on target of a race a month!


Now to the title of the post--the Melton Point was built in the early 1970's, apparently before builders discovered that closets sell houses. We have a total of five closets in our house, and two really don't count (they're located upstairs and filled more with boxes than clothes). Up until this house, every closet I've had since my teens has been large, and I'd allowed my wardrobe to expand to the space.


Two years ago, negotiating closet space became the biggest issue in my new marriage (somehow, living out of three wardrobe boxes in the living room just wasn't doing it for me). This wasn't helped by the fact that the closet in our guest room had no rod or shelf, or that my new husband had spent three years making the master bedroom closet completely his own. In addition to these sorry excuses for closets, we have a coat closet that also serves as a the main utility closet for the main level of our house.


For your viewing pleasure, and to show you what amazing progress we've made since January in our closet struggles, I took pictures this week to demonstrate just how small our closets are--


First, the Coat Closet--

Stats: 40" wide and 18" deep; one rod for coats and one shelf




Master Bedroom Closet--


Stats: 75" wide and 25" deep; one clothes rod and one very deep shelf



Guest Bedroom Closet--
Stats: 58" wide and 24" deep, with an oddly offset door; originally, no rod or shelf. I added two hanging rods turned sideways, and a closet unit on the other side to create something like a walk-in closet for J


So this is where we started and what we've worked with for the last two years. I learned to purge (because apparently I didn't need most of the clothes I'd kept from high school), and J made do in the guest room. Then we went to Ikea and J got the great idea to buy the wardrobes I talked about in this post. It's still a work in progress from a finishing standpoint, but we've been using our wardrobes for several weeks. I'll post pictures soon of our wardrobes and then (eventually) I'll get the room finished and share those pictures, too.


Title: Trapped in the Closet, by R. Kelly

We'll take a cup o' kindness yet

J and I spent a quiet New Year's Eve at home, and then we got up the first morning of 2010 to head to my folks in western Kentucky. We spent the afternoon and evening with folks from their community and organaizations they belong to at their annual open house, then spent Saturday evening with my Dad's side of the family at Patti's 1880's Settlement. This is the second year that we've gone to Patti's for our extended-family Christmas dinner, and it's a nice way to celebrate without overwhelming any particular family member with the whole group.

Overall, this weekend was a nice way to get 2010 started. My cousin Lori and I are making plans for the Derby mini-marathon in April, and J and I talked her into joining our team for the Bourbon Chase (a 200 mile relay tour of Kentucky's Bourbon Distilleries) next October. I think this sets us up well for the first of the MeltonPoint 2010 resolutions--

In 2010, J and I will :

• Run 300 miles. (In my heart, I hope we'll knock this out of the water; after all 30 minutes three days a week will achieve this goal. However, we need to focus on consistency, so this goal is geared towards that.)
• Lose weight--JE will meet her weight loss goal (35 pounds to go) and then re-evaluate. J will begin his weight loss journey with a one year goal of 60 pounds.
• Complete the following home improvement projects--

Library built-ins--sand and stain the bookshelves; install cabinets, a counter, and the bookshelves.

Deck--re-sand and paint deck trim.

Main Bathroom--re-finish vanity, paint the room, install new vanity/sink and mirror.

Master Bedroom--paint, install wardrobes, sew curtains for window and wardrobes.

• Restructure our spending so that we can live comfortably on 70% of our current combined take-home salary. This includes increases our charitable giving and reducing the amount of spending we can't account for at the end of the month. With the remainder this year, we'll be paying off student loans and building our emergency fund.
• Internalize and live our 2010 phrase--Be Gentle with yourself and others. This phrase comes from the blessing our priest gives at the close of Sunday services. Sometimes, we forget to give ourselves and others the benefit of the doubt, and we're quick to rush to judgement. We pray that in 2010, we learn to be more accepting, more loving, and more gentle.

Title: Auld Lang Syne

What a difference a day makes...

If I had written this post yesterday, you would have read all about our weekend, which started with the UK-Morehead game at Rupp and ended with a Paintsville Tea Party (for me; for J it ended with the Colts victory over the Patriots late last night). In between, we were among the few in Central Kentucky who can claim they have been inside 'The Castle' as we attended a fundraiser for the local chapter of Big Brothers Big Sisters. I'm still happy to share a couple of pictures from these events, but have many more pictures (and complaints) to share of our basement, so that's where the bulk of this post is headed.

First, Rupp and the Castle--

We had great tickets thanks to a DAR friend of mine who didn't need theirs. Also, there are many more Castle Pictures to share, but I don't have them just yet. Our friends Ryan and Leanna were there as well to photograph the event, so I didn't take my own camera. I'll add a link when those are posted!

Next up, our basement--

There is a show on HGTV called "If Walls Could Talk" that I watch sometimes. It's a neat show that looks into the neat stories people find about their homes when they stumble across boxes in the attic, or find bottles or pictures behind walls and beneath floor boards when they renovate. It must be incredibly cool to find a piece of your home's history hiding behind some drywall.

We aren't those people. The only thing we have found behind our walls are failed attempts to DIY or save money or 'be inventive' with a quick fix. I've mentioned before that we've had numerous repairmen in who start their repairs with some version of "Hmmm...I've never seen it done like this before..." Be it strange wiring, incorrect plumbing or an unorthodox gas line, we've gotten used to finding problems that end up costing us money.

Almost two years ago, our engineer-by-trade previous owner's ice machine line sprang a leak and soaked our basement with tens of gallons of water. (Wait, you didn't know we had an ice machine? Neither did we. He capped it off with the kind of valve you see on the end of the air hose to fill your tires with, and then he hid it behind a cheap refrigerator with no ice-maker in it to sell the house.) We had the line capped and repaired the ruined drywall, thinking that we were done with that issue. We moved on and even started dreaming of doing things to the house that would improve its value. You've read about our plans for the built in shelving in the library and my bathroom reno, and you may have even heard my thoughts for the kitchen and living room. I've had great plans for projects to tackle this winter.

Until today. Well, really, until a few weeks ago, when we noticed a wet spot in the basement drywall. Now, we've been known to have a damp basement, but only when it rains several inches a day for days at a time, and before we installed a dehumidifier. This wet spot was different, but it was also small enough to push aside in my thoughts until after my Northern Kentucky dinner last week. On Thursday night, I finally had the time to investigate and after hammering out a small hole, I discovered that the cap we'd had installed on that darn ice-maker line was leaking. I couldn't get a plumber in on Friday, and it didn't seem to be an emergency, so I left the job of fixing the hole until today.

I left it all until today because I am taking a much deserved day off, when I thought I could tackle several small projects before jumping back into work tomorrow. Instead of tackling several small projects, my morning was spent supervising a plumber who fixed the latest leak, and then ripping out more and more drywall and insulation.

What have my walls told me today? For starters, that the previous owners think it is okay to use nails to install drywall on a ceiling. Really, Mr. Engineer? Don't you think the fact that they make screws called "Drywall Screws" means you should use them? They don't make "Drywall Nails" so what on earth possessed you to use nails in the one part of the basement that actually has gravity pulling against it?

And why am I still pulling down drywall? And what does the insulation have to do with it? Well, both products are backed with paper, and just like Bounty, they wick up water really well. And what happens in cool dark places that get wet? Yup, J and I will be killing some mold and mildew before we get to put our basement back together this time.

The shelves for my built-ins in the library are already ordered, but the rest of my dream-projects are on hold for a while. Figures. Can't wait to learn what other secrets my house is keeping to share at the most inconvenient time.

Title: What a Difference a Day Makes

Giddy Up, Giddy Up, Giddy Up, Let's Go

I've been writing and re-writing blog posts in my head for about three weeks now, and as it happens, these posts I write in my head don't post to the blog for you all to read. Since this is the case, and since you've no idea what I have been writing in my head, I thought I'd bring you up to speed.

Three weeks ago, J's folks came to visit for the weekend. They hadn't been up in several months and one of the first things they noticed was our leaky bathroom sink. The sink has been leaking for a while, and had gotten worse in the last month. When the leaking started, I told myself that we'd reno the bathroom soon, and that it made little sense to tear apart a faucet that was going to be trashed soon. Well, weeks turned into months and spring turned into fall, and I now have a non-leaky faucet in my same old bathroom. Many thanks to J's parents for motivating me to get beyond the picture in my head to a lower water bill (I assume; haven't actually checked it), and many more to his dad for tightening up all of the joints under the sink that sprung leaks after I started messing with the faucet. Oh, and thank you, too, for the clock that is now hanging in our family room--had I managed to write this post after you guys left, it would have been titled "Time, time tickin’ tickin’ tickin’ (tickin’ away)" courtesy Don Henley.

Two weeks ago, I had a DAR weekend that my mom came up for. After our DAR meetings were done, she came to Lexington to finish out the weekend to help me gain a bit of control over my study/craft room. We spent a half a dozen hours upstairs cleaning, sorting, and sifting our way through the room. There is still quite a bit of work to do to reach the level of organization I'd like to see, but I'm pleased with the progress.

Last weekend, we ran our second 5K--the Black Cat Chase in Frankfort. Neither of us trained very much for this race, but we took a different approach to finishing it (intervals of walking/running) and actually completed the race in less time than the Mid-Summer Night's Run back in August. We're looking at a race in December, and possible tackling a 5 miler in Owensboro in November. We'll see.

After the race Friday night, we managed to improve on our weekend with a trip to Keeneland to close out the fall meet on Saturday with our friends Ryan and Leanna, and then enjoyed visiting with the Trick or Treaters who came by Saturday night. While I've been to Keeneland before, on this trip J scored tickets to the Lexington Room, which included a buffet luncheon of roast beef and corned beef, pasta, salads, yummy potatoes and excellent cheesecake, and fabulous seats directly in front of the finish line. All this inside a warm room with a waiter to bring us warm drinks and a betting window a few feet away. I've decided that Keeneland in the Lexington Room is way better than Keeneland with general admission tickets. J may regret this.

(I've posted a couple of pictures below. For more, including "J and JE get political" check out Ryan's blog.)

After Keeneland, we sped home to get ready for the Trick or Treaters before the appointed time of their arrival. The ghosts I made a few years ago with my nephew went out, along with our pumpkin. Then, in the last few minutes before the kiddos came knocking, I decided I had time to re-create a Martha Stewart decoration I spotted a few years ago. Presenting...our storm door silhouette of a scary tree. As you might guess, I'm pretty proud.

This weekend, we're hopefully playing it low key, as I have a big dinner I'm planning at work (scheduled for Tuesday) that is keeping me pretty tightly wired these days.

Have a great weekend of your own and hopefully I'll figure out a way to get my posts out of my head a little more frequently!

Title: Sleigh Ride

Knock, knock, knocking on heaven's door...

Tap, tap...

Tap, tap, tap...

Anyone out there? Probably not, and we'd understand. According to Blogger, we've not updated since mid-August, so that's nearly sixty days of nothing-ness from the Meltons. Rest assured, though, there's been plenty of activity around here!

First up, LOTS of unfinished projects. Not for lack of trying, mind you. I mean, we've been working on the deck since before Independence Day, but it's still not finished. In fact, our most recent attempt to get it done (painting the trim-work) was mostly washed away by a heavy rainstorm before it had a chance to dry. And by "away", I mean onto, and then through, the plastic sheeting covering the newly painted decking. I've given up on "just getting it done" and accepted that my new palm sander and I will be spending several days sanding down the trim before I can try again to paint the trim. After that, we'll have to get another coat on the decking to cover all the blue that had no problem sticking to the wrong wood.

What else? Hmmm...cabinets in the library? Still not installed, but at least they're hanging out in the right room.

Bathroom reno? No closer to getting started on that one, though the dripping faucet is now a steady stream of hot water, so I'm starting to feel guilty about not just fixing it.

Kitchen re-do? Oh, you haven't heard about that one? Yeah, it's my new dream, but I've promised J not to start on it until I've finished the other projects first. Hopefully we'll make some progress soon, and I'll actually be able to post some pics of finished projects.

What else? Well, J and I are still on the running kick (or at least the thinking about running kick), and are planning to run the Black Cat Chase in Frankfort on October 30. I'm definitely looking forward to that one, and I hear they have good tee-shirts, too! I'm just over a third of the way to my weight loss goal, and J has just started his own weight loss journey, so I expect we'll stick with the exercise thing a little longer.

Best of all, we celebrated our Two Year Anniversary on September 29. As my dad said, this might stick! For those of you interested, Year Two is the Cotton anniversary (traditional, not contemporary), and J and I did our best to stick to the plan. He gave me three new flags to fly in front of our house (not cotton, exactly, but fabric just the same), and has promised more as the months pass. I'll post a picture of October's flag and the wreath I made to go out front with it soon. Keeping in mind J's new-found interest in cooking, I went off-theme and bought tickets to see Food Network Chef Bobby Flay. Bobby was fantastic, and J got some great ideas, which he promptly came home and tried out. While not using his actual anniversary gift, a poly-cotton blend chef's apron that declares him to be the Melton Point Chef (apparently, he's afraid of getting it dirty...).

So that's the last couple of months in a nutshell. We'll try to be better, and hope that you're sticking around for it!

Title: "Knocking on Heaven's Door", by Bob Dylan (or Guns N Roses, depending on your generation) (chosen for the knocking on the glass of the computer screen...kind of obscure, I know.)

Buildin', buildin', buildin'

Progress is moving rapidly on our new fence, with just one (expected) day to before the fence is complete. Pretty impressive given that we just hired the company on Wednesday and they don't work weekends. Here are a couple of pictures to show the progress (first from Thursday evening when J arrived home, and second from this evening which show the two finished sides). As long as the weather holds, they will finish tomorrow!

The other big news from the weekend is that I survived my second Thin Mint Sprint at work. Both races exceeded my goal number of participants and we received several compliments on how well organized both events were. Despite making May a stressful month here at the Melton Point, the success and praise totally re-enforce my job satisfaction! Here is a picture of Thin Mint Millie, the race mascot, which I made. Not the greatest job, but I'm pretty pleased with her. You can see the picture I modeled her after at the race website http://www.thinmintsprint.org/

This week we're getting the house reorganized (tough when parts haven't been organized to start with!) in preparation for a visit from J's mom this weekend.

Title: my version of Rawhide

Do you know the Omelet Man? He lives on Winthrop Drive.

I'm sure you're wondering where on earth the Melton Point has disappeared to; fact of the matter is we've been incredibly busy doing nothing exiciting enough to take pictures of and write about. We've finally gotten through our busiest weekend, and I'm taking a day off to recover, so thought I'd get a post up (though, admittedly without pictures).

First, how does our living room look? Worse than the last picture you saw. Our first two plans for getting rid of the old furniture fell through and I've been too busy to call Habitat to come pick it up. Then last weekend, J stepped off the steps into sqiushy carpet in the family room. The sump pump failed and flooded the entire basement, which then required that we take all of the electronics upstairs (to the living room) and bring in a water mitigation team to dry the place out. The family room is dry now, but we still haven't cleaned the carpets, so nothing has been put back in place.

What else have we been up to? Well, two weeks ago, I spent a weekend at Girl Scout camp, where I rapelled down an 80 foot cliff, ascended a rope to about 30 feet in the air, and zipped off a 35 foot tower. That weekend of fun ushered in two weeks of frantic planning and work for the first ever Thin Mint Sprint sponsored by our council. J, it turns out, has a future in data entry if this lawyering thing doesn't work out. Every night for the last week before the race, he entered race entries for a few hours so that I would have an accurate check in list. We ended up with 400 participants and a beautiful day to run the Thin Mint Sprint, and I've just about caught up on my sleep!

And finally, do you know the Omelet Man? The church that J and I attend serves breakfast (Soul Food) on Sunday mornings between the early service and the Sunday School hour. While we don't usually make it on time for breakfast, we have attended a couple and have been overwhelmed by the welcoming and hospitable nature of the folks who do attend. We decided last month that we would like to do something to re-pay this generous nature of the church, and after Easter, hit upon the idea of serving breakfast.

A little back story--J comes from a line of great breakfast cooks and he certainly does the same. After our wedding, we bought a set of Calphalon non-stick pots and pans, which includes an 8" omelet pan. Together with an ancient spatula from my first apartment in college, these tools turned my husband into Omelet Man. He regularly cooks omelets on weekend mornings for us, and in January, he took his show on the road to Cumberland Falls for our camping trip with friends.

When we learned that you could sign up to do an egg dish for Soul Food, J suggested we try an Omelet Bar. We had no idea how it would work out, so the woman in charge of Soul Food offered to bring an egg casserole and let us do the omelets as a quiet test. In the end, we had 12 toppings to choose from and served 18 omelets (probably about half of those who attended Soul Food took us up on the omelet bar) to rave reviews. We're pretty excited about the results, and J is pretty excited about having a second omelet pan and gas burners to carry it all off with!

Title: My version of "Do you know the Muffin Man?"

Ch-ch-ch-changes

I mentioned in my last post that J and I were on the receiving end of much of my grandmother's furniture as she has now moved into a nursing home in Texas. My folks drove it back from Texas in a rented U-Haul and we met them at home this weekend to bring the U-Haul the rest of the way to Lexington. While we were there, it seemed logical to pick up the two trunks and pie safe that I've been talking about bringing up for years.

Our living room is packed tight with our old furniture and our new furniture, as well as everything else on the truck that hasn't found its permanent home in our house yet.

The pie safe, which belonged to my great-great-grandmother and was left to me by a great aunt years ago, has found a home in our guest room, where it will now keep quilts and blankets safe. Because it was an inch wider than I thought, the pie safe did not slip right into the place I had picked out for it. J pitched in and re-arranged everything with me, and we're now going to 'live with it' for a while to see how it works out.

Apologies for the huge mess in the pictures--I just wanted to show you how it looks now! The white chest of drawers will not be staying, but it needs to be emptied before moving into a new home in my office upstairs. Art needs to be hung, too. Maybe next weekend...

Title: Changes, by David Bowie

How much is that teapot in the window?

This post has two pretty different topics (because let's face it, I can admit to not being the most frequent poster lately), and I had two songs competing for the title role ("I'm a little tea pot" and "How much is that doggie in the window?" if you can't piece it together yourself!).

First up, the centerpieces using the logs out of our yard that I discussed in my last post.

The pitchers, from Bybee Pottery, remind me of squatty little teapots and had me singing the song incessantly! I highly recommend a trip to Bybee for those of you in, or even passing through, central Kentucky. It's located 30-45 minutes south of Lexington off I-75 and the prices at this 200 year old shop are amazing!

Now, on to topic 2--no, we're not shopping for another dog! Zeppelin turns 8 this week and is happy to be an only child in our house! Nope, the song came to mind when I used Zep to model my latest craft project. I saw this craft described last fall and hadn't managed to try it out. This evening, I found myself with an hour to kill and a fabric shop in sight, so I knew I needed to give it a shot! Presenting--a handmade ballet/princess skirt, ready for dress up. Unfortunately, I wanted to share pictures with a few folks before shipping it off to my neice E. Not having a handy small child around to pose for me, I used the next best thing--Zep--who did a great job posing for me!

This skirt is light pink and lavender, with pink and lilac organza ribbon at the waist. This can be made of any color tulle and ribbon you can find, and I'm happy to whip one up for anyone who'd like their own (about $10-$15 in materials).

J and I are headed to western KY this weekend for a super-quick trip to pick up a U-Haul that my parents are driving up from Texas with some "new" furniture. My grandmother (Mur) has moved into a nursing home and has a ton of furniture that she's been kind enough to share with us. This means that my current living room furniture (nearly 35 years old and has lived with two generations each of Mulinix's and Hiters, not to mention being the furniture that J said would NOT be moved into his house) is moving on to a new home with another college student. Sniff...

Title: "How much is that doggie in the window" with some license, by Bob Merrill

What's new pussycat?

In a word, lots is new. J and I have been terribly busy between work and hobbies, and haven't had time to post about any of them. I'll try to hit the high points:

I had a birthday, which J recognized with a great new toy--a Silhouette, or personal digital cutting machine that makes incredibly cool stuff, like this:

and this:

We're mid-way through having the gutters fixed from the ice storm, and last week, I had someone out to gie us an estimate on taking out the tree that fell on our deck during the same storm. His estimate was so good that we asked him to take out another tree, as well as the honeysuckle trees that lined two sides of our property. In just a few hours Saturday, our yard went from this:

to this!

Now, we just need to get the property surveyed and we'll be on our way to a fenced in backyard. We're pretty sure Zeppelin will be thrilled!

The cabinets are still unfinished, though we've continued to take baby steps on that process. I have a big DAR conference this weekend, but am optimistic that we'll get back on the cabinet finishing wagon next week! We've continued to clean out the library so we've got just the place to install the cabinets when we eventually finish them!

Title: "What's New Pussycat?" by Tom Jones

Shake, Rattle & Roll

Well, I had hoped to have the "after" pictures for you, but we're just not there yet. And for that matter, "in progress" pictures look a lot like what you've already seen, so I'm not going to post more. We've still got to do a coat of poly and install, but we cleared out the library so installation *should* be a pretty easy process. Hopefully we'll have pictures for you by the end of the week!

And what else did we do this weekend? Well, I finally put out our St. Patrick's Day decorations (see pics below) and shipped my neice's birthday present. E's four this year and has a nasty bruise on her noise from a spill she took a little over a week ago (clearly, she takes after her auntie when it comes to being graceful!). I'm hoping the pretty packaging brings a smile to her face (or at least the the presents inside do!).
Have a great week, and check back for an update (and hopefully those "after" pics) later this week!

Title: Shake, Rattle and Roll, witten by Charles Calhoun (most famously recorded by Elvis Presley)

Can we build it? Yes, we can!

Over the last few weeks, I've been slowly bringing order to J's office/our library downstairs. Unfortunately, the more I cleaned, the more I realized that we desperately need built-ins along one wall to corral our games, books, and J's electronics. I drew up the plans for the built-ins a couple of years ago, but we've not had the time or confidence to tackle that project.

So, as I've been cleaning and organizing this time, I realized that we could compromise on the built-ins and start with pre-made cabinetry. I made a quick trip to Home Depot on my lunch break last week, priced it all out, and proceeded to convince J this was a good idea. (That took another trip to HD, as well as calls to both dads and a grandfather, but he eventually got on board!)

Our unfinished oak cabinets were delivered Saturday morning, and since then we've been tackling the project of finishing them a day at a time. I've attached a couple of pictures below. Stay tuned--I have us on a two week time-line to get this complete, so as the look changes I'll add new pictures!

Saturday night, after we added the end pieces to the cabinet ends that will be visible and sealed all surfaces that will be in contact with the floor or drywall--the library is finished, but we didn't want to take a risk that water won't work its way in somehow.

Monday night. I spent all afternoon/evening Sunday sanding everything down so that we could get a first coat of stain down after work on Monday. By the way, you may wonder why the interior of the cabinet is a different color--it's because Home Depot's unfinished cabinets are lined with a laminate material that won't stain. A little frustrating, but we'll live with it.

The next steps are another coat of stain and poly, so I probably will not post pictures again until this weekend when we start to install everything.

Title: Bob the Builder theme song

My funny Valentine

Ack! How on earth did I let two weeks go by without a post? Of course, more than half of that time was spent in mad-dash preparations for Children's Advocacy Day, a day where GSKWRC (well, two other staff members and I) took 24 middle- and high-school girls to Frankfort for a day. Time, the weather, and a million other elements conspired against me, but we perservered and had a great day on Thursday. On Friday, I managed to put together a decent mailbox for our office Valentine's party (thank goodness I made those valentines a couple of weeks ago!), then came home and crashed!

Today, my sweet valentine treated me to a heart themed breakfast, a trip to the Athens Schoolhouse Antique Show and a fabulous dinner. Pictures of breaskfast and dinner (and a shot of how I spent my pre-dinner hour--yes, I was drinking wine and reading blogs while he slaved over salad, homemade dressing, steak, and my favorite mashed potatoes) are below.

I've not taken a picture yet of my Valentine's present, a cast iron fireplace insert, which fits almost perfecty inside our mantel. A little more work and I'll have that part of our living room complete!

Title: My Funny Valentine, by Frank Sinatra